“What a stupid world this would be if one never did anything different for fear of criticism.”
Living constantly in awareness of the presence of God is not a common thing for the average Christian, although I wish I could say it was. If we truly lived in constant communication with Christ, it would shape our lives. We would look completely different than we do right now. This should be our desire. If we are going to start to live in the presence of God, it is going to take a conscious effort to keep Christ on our minds at all times, praising God without ceasing and praying without end. As we go through the day, we should open our souls and entertain the glory of the Lord in everything we see.The only problem is that we fail. We fail often. No matter how hard we try to make every thought about Christ, we still get distracted oh so easily. It is okay to fail with this though. If you think about it, we are already living in failure as we spend a majority of the day thinking on temporal things which will not matter in eternity. Christ is always faithful to pick us up and get us right back on track though. After a while of living in constant awareness of God's presence, it will become habit.
“If we are so impoverished that we have nothing to reveal but small talk, then we need to struggle for more richness of soul. Money, praise, poverty, opposition, these make no difference, for they will all alike be forgotten in a thousand years, but this spirit which comes to a mind set upon continuous surrender, this spirit is timeless.”
My prayer is that we will be in constant fellowship with the Lord to the point where small talk is boring to us, where everything that the world strives after seems completely pointless. I want my life to be all about living in the Spirit and letting God use me to advance His kingdom! This is the purpose of the church! Why are we so easily distracted? Let us ask ourselves at the end of each day, "Was my goal to glorify Christ today or did I live selfishly?" Let's be real, this is so hard for me. It is easy to be in Christ's presence during church or during my time in the Word and in prayer, but it's hard for me to live a Spirit-filled life all day long. I want to look at people using God as my glasses, colored with His love for them.
The disciples spent 168 hours a week with Jesus. They were with Jesus 24 hours a day for 3 years! What would happen to us if we spent our every moment in fellowship with the Lord? Our minds would be transformed, our spirit renewed. Our words would be streams of fresh water in a world that is cast in the desert. Think of all the times we think to ourselves about the things going on around us. What if we talked to God in those moments instead? Our hearts would be filled with the joy of the presence of the Lord. Out of the fullness of the heart, the mouth speaks. Let us seek Christ passionately in every moment to fill us up and send us out. In this process of seeking the Lord at every moment, we will not always have a deep emotional feeling, but we will have a peace that passeth all understanding. The emotions will have their moments too.
The disciples spent 168 hours a week with Jesus. They were with Jesus 24 hours a day for 3 years! What would happen to us if we spent our every moment in fellowship with the Lord? Our minds would be transformed, our spirit renewed. Our words would be streams of fresh water in a world that is cast in the desert. Think of all the times we think to ourselves about the things going on around us. What if we talked to God in those moments instead? Our hearts would be filled with the joy of the presence of the Lord. Out of the fullness of the heart, the mouth speaks. Let us seek Christ passionately in every moment to fill us up and send us out. In this process of seeking the Lord at every moment, we will not always have a deep emotional feeling, but we will have a peace that passeth all understanding. The emotions will have their moments too.
“The greatest pains or pleasures of this world are not to be compared with what I have experienced of both pain and pleasures in a spiritual state. Therefore, I am careful for nothing and fear nothing, desiring only one thing of God—that I might not offend Him.”- Brother Lawrence
I pray that our love of the Lord grows stronger each day and that our desires are only towards things of eternal value. Perfect love casts out fear. May our pains and pleasure only be in the spiritual realm. Let nothing of this world cause us distress and our only fear be of the Lord. Let us take pleasure fully in delighting in the Lord. It may mean surrenduring even harmless pleasures if they take any affection away from Christ to whom all glory is deserved. Let us live in the presence. Let us die in the presence.
“The Lord is not outside of you, pouring down favors. The Lord is within you. Seek Him there, within… and no where else.”
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